Pretrial Detention

Most Texans do not realize that an average of 49% of the people held in a county lockup are pre-trial—not yet convicted. The system moves exceedingly slow unless you have money or connections. Now imagine what happens to those with a serious medical problem, like asthma or a heart condition. Timothy Cole had asthma and

Read almost any part of this report and then please tell me how Harris County allowed things to get this bad. They have 9,400 people in this place and scores are dying from maltreatment and neglect, not to mention the chokeholds and hogtying. And if you want to see a first person account, read Sarah’s

We cannot name the person or the county in this report because we need to protect the privacy and safety of the inmate and her family who shared her story with TJP. Earlier this month, 18 year-old Jessica B. was arrested for violating her probation, resulting in a six-month sentence. At the time of her

ATHENS — An investigation into the death of a Henderson County Jail inmate was turned over to the Texas Rangers following allegations of medical neglect and mistreatment at the hands of jail officials.
The sheriff’s office denies any wrongdoing.

By Carol Cavazos, CBS 11 Ten days into serving her sentence at the Tarrant County Jail, a Fort Worth woman died. Police say Adrienne Lemons was serving time for unpaid traffic tickets. The 35-year-old was rushed to John Peter Smith Hospital on June 13, where she later died. Lemons leaves behind a 3-year-old child. Lemons’

Houston Chronicle Staff, Houston Chronicle For more than two years, news stories by Chronicle reporters have raised troubling questions concerning the mortality rate among prisoners held at the Harris County Jail. At least 138 deaths occurred between 2001 and the end of 2007. In January, three more county jail inmates died. Now that the Department

Most people find it easy to turn a blind eye to the misery of some stranger with a no-doubt unsavory past, so instead consider this information as being about your kid sister — the one who made the mistake of hanging out with the wrong people. Like most of her cellmates, Sis is in her early 20s, grew up near Brownsville, works a minimum-wage job and is the mother of two small children. She is no murderer – in fact, she is a generous and sweet person who works hard for a living. . . .

Letter to TJP from mother of inmate: “My son was barely out of high school and it was a non-violent offense. He was in a private jail in Spur Texas owned by the Geo Group out of Florida. This was my first experience with jails of any kind and I couldn’t believe some of the

The names in the following article have been changed to protect the privacy of both the inmate it is about and the woman who shared it with Texas Jail Project. Last fall, Mary T. was temporarily jailed in Bell County on a charge related to her military service. Mary shared a cell with Jane, a

By Matt Pulle, Dallas Observer In February 2005, Alice Lynch-Fullen visited her brother, Christopher Lynch, at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center after he was arrested on rape charges in Grand Prairie. A large, imposing man, Lynch had ligature marks around his neck, alerting his distraught sister that he had tried to hang himself. “Don’t let